


Coffee and Liquor

by Babenclaw



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, M/M, mentions of physical intimacy, physical intimacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 03:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8473189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babenclaw/pseuds/Babenclaw
Summary: After a night of drinking, Isa wakes up with a lot of questions and very few answers, and Lea doesn't seem to be much help.





	

Lea grinned and yanked the living room curtains apart, allowing sunlight to stream into the formerly dark room. “Sleep well?”

Isa squinted blearily at him from his makeshift bed on the couch before pulling the thick blanket over his head, making a low grumbling sound.

Lea laughed at the sound and moved past the upset blob, making a fair amount of noise as he prepared the coffee maker to brew a full pot of strong black coffee. His project completed, he leaned back against the kitchen countertop, his sharp hipbones casting shadows across the exposed strip of skin at his waist. “C’mon, wakey-wakey Isa.”

The blanket shifted, pulling back to reveal one angry looking blue eye, slightly bloodshot and heavy with sleep. “No,” his low voice rumbled. “Go away.”

“Is that any way to treat your friend, Isa?” Lea nearly cooed, now rifling through the fridge.

“Are we friends?” Isa asked in reply, very reluctantly sitting up and pulling the blankets tighter around his bare shoulders now that it had become clear that he would not be getting any more sleep this morning.

Lea paused for a moment in his digging, biting his tongue like he was biting back the answer he wanted to shoot back at him, before turning back to the man on the couch with his trademark smile firmly back in place, a carton of eggs firmly in his grip. “’Course we’re friends.”

Isa only huffed, his eyes focused on the eggs Lea was holding. “You can cook?”

“What is this, huh, twenty questions?” Lea asked as he set the carton next to the stove. He pulled out the other things he would need for eggs—milk, salt, pepper, a bowl—and started cleanly cracking the eggs into the bowl while some butter melted in a frying pan on the stovetop. “I can make some stuff. I hear my scrambled eggs are divine.”

Isa looked doubtful, but he stood nonetheless and shuffled to the fake-wood table in the kitchen, sitting down with a dull thud in one of the mismatched chairs.

“You want something to drink?” Lea asked to fill the silence as he poured the blended eggs into the heated pan with a low sizzle. 

Isa swallowed and nodded. Lea wondered if he, too, had woken up with the telltale fuzzy dryness in his mouth that could only come from a long night of drinking.

Lea pushed a mug of coffee across the table to him along with a small container of sugar and some creamer packets Isa was pretty sure had been stolen from a local breakfast café. He ignored the creamer, but poured some sugar into the coffee before stirring and taking a grateful sip.

Silence filled the kitchen except for the sizzle of eggs. Lea fidgeted, feeling eyes on his back as he finished cooking the eggs, spooning them onto two plates and carrying them to the table along with forks and a bottle of ketchup.

Isa took his plate silently, and Lea set across from him, keeping the table between them. Finally, Isa decided it was time to ask the real question.

“What… what happened last night?”

Lea dragged his fork across the plastic surface of his own plate, not quite willing to look up and meet his friend’s eyes. He ignored the images that teased across the forefront of his mind—a bare expanse of skin, shoulders moving fluidly beneath flesh; fingers digging into dark blue sheets, the fabric crumpling and pulling from the force; warmth coiling between bodies, the friction push-pull of skin on skin under the covers of darkness; a little pain, a lot of pleasure, and warm arms comforting him afterwards; over it all, the smell of sweat and liquor.

“I dunno,” Lea finally responded, his attention seemingly focused entirely on the food in front of him. “I don’t even remember coming home.” He could feel Isa’s eyes on him, the weight of his gaze combining with the weight of his own guilt and pressing hard and heavy on his shoulders.

Isa eventually nodded and continued eating his eggs in the uncomfortable silence. Lea sighed, taking a swallow of his rapidly cooling coffee.

Isa pushed the half-eaten plate of eggs away, the sound of plastic dragging across fake wood loud in the silence.

“Lea,” Isa murmured after a moment, “you’re lying to me.”

Lea grinned and leaned the chair back on two legs, forcing his earlier exuberance. “Now why would I do that?” he asked lazily.

Isa sighed, his breath leaving in a heavy exhale, and stood from the table, carrying his plates over to the sink. Lea dropped from his lounging position, his chair legs hitting the floor beneath him with a solid thunk. He moved to the sink with his own plates, just in time for Isa to turn away and lean back against the counter with his arms crossed across his chest.

“I don’t know,” Isa said at last, his eyes flashing with what Lea thought might’ve been anger, or was it hurt? “Why _would_ you lie to me?”

Lea tried for a moment to keep that confidence before his façade shattered like glass.

“I don’t know,” Lea admitted. “I just don’t want to hurt you, I guess.”

Isa uncrossed his arms, an eyebrow going up to hide in his hairline. “I’m not fragile,” he said. Lea wondered if Isa really believed that, really believed he was unbreakable.

Lea didn’t want to be the one to break him. Lea didn’t want to be hated. Would Isa leave, if he knew?

He shook his head, shaking off his musings to come back to the present and to Isa’s blue eyes boring into him.

“I know that,” Lea said hoarsely, before swallowing back the strange lump that had risen in his throat. “I know,” he repeated, quieter this time, “but I still don’t want to.”

Isa rolled his eyes, pushing away from the counter and moving forward so they were chest to chest. Lea couldn’t help but notice that Isa was just a little bit shorter than him, maybe an inch at most. Not enough to be difficult, but enough that Lea had to tilt his head down, just a bit, to look him directly in the eyes.

“Well, stop,” Isa said. Lea tried not to notice the way this felt, the smell of coffee and last night’s liquor on Isa’s breath as it brushed across his skin. The redhead swallowed, wanting to take a step back but not wanting to show his nervousness to his friend.

Isa stepped closer, and Lea could feel the warmth radiating off his skin. The shorter man’s eyes, wide and so very blue, searched his and Lea had to resist the urge to close his eyes, look away, stop him from whatever it was he was doing. Did he remember? Was that what Isa was trying to tell him? Should he ask? Could he?

“Oh-okay,” Lea whispered instead, trying not to show nerves, trying not to break.

Isa looked at him for a moment, then two, before closing his eyes and looking away. Lea shivered, his body slumping forward the tiniest bit in relief and disappointment. By the time he opened his eyes again, Isa had moved away, into the bedroom area.

“Are you,” Lea said, his voice shaking just the tiniest bit, “are you leaving?”

“Mmm,” Isa responded, grabbing his phone and wallet off the bedside table. “Got classes on Monday, homework. You know.”

Lea nodded, leaning on the counter where Isa had been moments before, trying to shake the discomfort settling low in his gut. “Yeah, I know.” He fidgeted for a moment before following Isa into the kitchen, settling himself on the bed, his fingers twisting into the sheets, trying to focus on Isa here and now, not the Isa that was already haunting his memories. “Call me later?”

Isa hummed, grabbing his keys off the table. “Sure.”

Lea followed him to the door, his fingers twitching with the desire to reach out, grab his wrist, pull him back inside and confess everything. He imagined the words spilling out of his mouth, the words that would make Isa stay.

Instead, he smiled, closed the door gently behind him, and flicked the lock.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a friend, [sailorscoutsaix](http://sailorscoutsaix.tumblr.com/), on tumblr. She loves Isa. A lot.


End file.
